Yambio town | File picture

The minister of information in Western Equatoria State says he narrowly escape death in an attack on Tuesday night.

William Baiki states that armed men attacked his home in Yambio.

He said his bodyguards fired back at the men, forcing them to run away.  During the gunfight, he said his bodyguards forced him to hide in a room.

Nobody was hurt on the minister’s side; his security injured one of the attackers, whom they later captured and handed over to CID.

“During the interrogation, he said he was a member of the forces under Gen Nando…and that they were four in number,”Baiki told Eye Radio on Wednesday.

Lately, armed men have been targeting government officials in Yambio, including the county commissioner and the minister of health.

The motive behind the attack on Baiki is not known, but recent report by the UN Human Rights Commission for South Sudan suggested that some area politicians based in Juba were fueling the conflict in the state.

It said the conflict in the state, particularly Tambura County, where “massacres” were perpetrated has claimed over 200 lives and displaced more than 80,000 people.